Tokelauís basket of goods a little cheaper this quarter

The consumer price index (CPI) of Tokelau showed a decrease of 0.5 percent for the June 2016 quarter. The Tokelau National Statistics Office released this result today.

In this second quarter of the year, prices fell for major food items such as sausages, potatoes, and cooking oil. The price of petrol fell 5.4 percent.

Prices for the Alcoholic beverages and cigarettes group rose slightly. There was no change in the price for cigarettes or beer in the quarter, but spirit prices rose 1.4 percent.

In the year to the June 2016 quarter, the CPI of Tokelau decreased 0.6 percent, compared to a slight rise of 0.2 percent (revised) in the previous quarter.

The largest group contributions to this annual drop were from the Food and non-alcoholic beverages (down 2.5 percent), from the Transport group (down 6.9 percent) and the Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance group (down 6.3 percent).

The largest individual upward contribution came from cigarettes (up 6.8 percent) and also from price increases for canned fish, milk powder, and biscuits or crackers.

The graph shows how the Tokelau CPI has changed since its base quarter (June 2012): the all-groups CPI indicates inflation of 9.3 percent over the entire period to June 2016. The CPI excluding cigarettes shows an increase of 2.6 percent over the same period.

The full information release on the Tokelau CPI, including graphs, tables and technical notes, is available from http://TokelauNSO.tk

Tokelau is one of the world’s most geographically isolated countries, and home to 1,383 people. The CPI measures the rate of price change of goods and services purchased by Tokelau households in each one of the three atolls’ stores. Tokelau uses the New Zealand dollar as its currency; most of its goods are imported from Samoa.